Historidex / Building the famous

Famous Landmarks Under Construction: Historical Photos

Landmarks look permanent until you see them half built. These photos show famous structures while the scaffolding was still up.

24 famous landmarks under construction stories

• Lady Liberty, built in Paris c. 1882, Paris, France

  Workers at the Gaget, Gauthier and Co. workshop in Paris around 1882, with the statue's giant left hand behind them. Gustave Eiffel designed the iron skeleton inside. The finished statue was taken apart and shipped to New York in crates.

• The Eiffel Tower, still going up 1888, Champ de Mars, Paris, France

  November 1888. It was built for the 1889 World's Fair and meant to come down in 1909. It stayed the tallest structure on Earth for 41 years.

• Digging the Métro at the Étoile about 1900, Place de l'Étoile, Paris

  Workers dig a timber-braced trench for the Paris Métro on the Place de l'Étoile, about 1900. Work on the first line began on October 4, 1898, and it opened to passengers on July 19, 1900.

• A temple moved to New York 10 BCE, Dendur, Nubia, Egypt

  The Temple of Dendur was built in the reign of Augustus, who appears on its walls dressed as a pharaoh. The Aswan High Dam's lake threatened to flood it. In 1965 Egypt gave it to the United States, which had helped save Nubian monuments, and it was shipped to New York in 661 crates.

• Workers Rebuild Angkor's Giants 1921, Angkor Thom, Cambodia

  In 1921 workers carry a heavy load on poles past a wooden scaffold at Angkor Thom's Victory Gate. They were restoring the gods and demons along the causeway, under officials of the French school EFEO. Each row of figures holds a serpent body as a railing.

• Through the Arch of Septimius Severus 1911, Roman Forum, Rome, Italy

  In 1911 a camera pans through the Arch of Septimius Severus, dedicated in 203 CE to the emperor and both his sons. After Caracalla had his brother Geta killed, Geta's name was chiseled out. The holes for the bronze letters still show it.

• Chicago lifted whole blocks about 1857, Lake Street, Chicago

  In 1860, 600 men turning 6,000 jackscrews lifted half a block of brick buildings on Lake Street in Chicago, and the shops inside stayed open. This print by Edward Mendel, dated about 1857, shows a block on the same street standing on supports above the road.

• Panning Across the Colosseum Interior 1900, Rome, Italy

  A cameraman swings across the inside of the Colosseum in 1900. Titus opened the building around 80 CE with games that ran about 100 days.

• Lincoln sworn in under an unfinished dome 1861, Washington, D.C., USA

  When Abraham Lincoln took the oath on March 4, 1861, the Capitol dome was half built, with a crane standing over it. Work went on through the war, partly because the iron contractor kept building after the government halted the job in 1861. Lincoln reportedly called it a sign the Union would go on.

• The Alaska Highway handshake 1942, Beaver Creek, Yukon

  In October 1942, two Army bulldozer crews building the Alaska Highway toward each other met at Beaver Creek, Yukon. Corporal Refines Sims of the 97th Engineers, an African American unit, shook hands with Private Alfred Jalufka of the 18th Engineers. The highway was dedicated on November 20, 1942.

• The Omaha harbor a storm destroyed 1944, Omaha Beach, Normandy, France

  On June 16, 1944, a half-track drove along the floating causeway of the Mulberry harbor off Omaha Beach. Within a week a storm wrecked the unfinished harbor, and the Americans gave it up. The British Mulberry at Arromanches survived and stayed in use for months.

• Abu Simbel, still in the sand 1850, Abu Simbel, Egypt

  Maxime Du Camp photographed this colossus at Abu Simbel in 1850, with sand still piled around it. Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt reported the site in 1813, and Giovanni Belzoni's team entered the Great Temple in 1817. The complex was moved to higher ground in the 1960s.

• Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge by Train 1899, Brooklyn Bridge, New York, USA

  In September 1899 a camera at the front of a train filmed the ride across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. Edison copyrighted the film and sold it as the entire trip from Brooklyn to New York.

• Launching a Japanese Cruiser in San Francisco 1898, San Francisco, California

  The Japanese cruiser Chitose slid down the ways at San Francisco's Union Iron Works on January 22, 1898. Edison's crew filmed the launch, and the San Francisco Chronicle reported the pictures were meant for audiences in Japan.

• Borobudur With Its Base Hidden 1872, Borobudur, Java, Indonesia

  In this 1872 view, Borobudur's true base is already hidden under a stone skirt. Behind it are 160 carved panels about karma, found in 1885 and covered again. Only one corner of them can be seen today.

• A German Cruiser Slides Down the Ways 1897, Kiel, Germany

  The armored cruiser Fürst Bismarck was launched at the imperial shipyard in Kiel on September 25, 1897. Lumière catalogue number 785 shows the hull sliding down the slipway past a packed crowd.

• Prambanan Before Restoration 1889 to 1890, Prambanan, Java, Indonesia

  Kassian Céphas photographed this partly collapsed temple at Prambanan in Java in 1889 or 1890. Dutch colonial authorities later began rebuilding the compound, and the main Shiva temple was finished in 1953.

• Inside Karnak's Great Hypostyle Hall 1851 to 1852, Karnak, Thebes, Egypt

  Felix Teynard photographed the central columns of Karnak's Great Hypostyle Hall in 1851 to 1852. The hall has 134 columns in 16 rows, and 12 of them stand about 21 meters tall. Most of the building was done under Seti I and Ramesses II.

• Digging Out Meroë's Temple of Amun 1909 to 1910, Meroe, Sudan

  A crew digs out the Temple of Amun at Meroë in a plate from John Garstang's 1911 book on his first season, 1909 to 1910. Meroë was a capital of the Kingdom of Kush for centuries. The Liverpool team also dug the Lion Temple, a sun temple and a cemetery.

• The Cloaca Maxima 1850s, Rome, Italy

  Rome's Cloaca Maxima is traditionally dated to about 600 BCE and credited to King Tarquinius Priscus. Robert Macpherson photographed this leafy stretch of it before 1858. Parts of the sewer still carry water.

• Blowing up Hell Gate 1885, Hell Gate, New York City

  On October 10, 1885, Army engineers set off about 300,000 pounds of explosives to clear Flood Rock from New York's East River. The blast threw water about 250 feet into the air and was reportedly felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey.

• The Colosseum's Outer Wall 1856, Rome, Italy

  In 1855 the botanist Richard Deakin published a catalogue of 420 plants growing wild on the Colosseum. A year later Jane St John photographed its outer wall, with a bare tree in front.

• The Pont du Gard Aqueduct 1870 to 1900, Pont du Gard, France

  The aqueduct that crossed this bridge ran about 50 kilometers to Nîmes and dropped only about 17 meters along the way. The Pont du Gard itself is 48.8 meters high and was built around 40 to 60 CE. The photo is an anonymous albumen print from 1870 to 1900.

• Inside the Parthenon, Looking West 1869 to 1870, Acropolis, Athens, Greece

  William James Stillman photographed the Acropolis in 1869, and the carbon prints were published as an album in 1870. This is plate 14, a view inside the Parthenon looking west.

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